Baby

9. Some of the most important parts of early literacy have nothing to do with books or letters or words printed on a page

Literacy is very important in our information-oriented society. Reading and writing are also foundation skills for school success. Lots of experts tell parents to read and share books with babies — right from the start, people sometimes say.

But some of the most important aspects of early literacy have nothing to do with books. For example, one of the earliest forms of literacy development takes place when babies and toddlers look at the faces of people who talk to them, and they gradually start to make connections between the sounds they hear and the way people’s lips move. “Watching those lip movements helps children learn to connect sounds and words. That’s one of the foundations for reading,” says Shanker.

Human languages have all sorts of different phonemes — sounds that are put together to make words. Children need to hear the sounds of their language repeatedly so they can make the neural connections they need and eliminate the ones they don’t need. Development of this and other basic language abilities, even before they can talk, paves the way for the ability to read, which comes much later.

It’s good to introduce babies to books in their first year, but the early literacy experience that babies need most is language interaction — singing songs, pointing out and naming objects in and around your house, and taking part in those little everyday parent-child conversations you have as you play with and care for them.

Originally published in Today's Parent Baby & Toddler, Fall/Winter 2009